#distantteatime

"Oh?"

Break hadn't heard about the news - then again, it was that time of the year when young Ladies from good families went to receive the Queen's favors.

Sharon would forever be too young to participate in this event.

[ 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇 ] Sender's muse gently touches a bruise on Receiver's muse’s body

Being contracted to the Mad Hatter, it came as no surprise the Baskerville would hold some... hostility against Break. The Chain's power alone was threat enough to their existence, and the man had used it more than once to put an end to their comrade's lives.

For the Baskerville, he supposed he appeared as an harbinger of death.

So it came as no surprise - it came as a relief, really - that they would focus their spite on him. In doing so, they spared Sharon and the Duchess from the same hurt.

Until one of them touched Sharon as she rose to protect him.

His blind eye failed to show him the blow she took for him; it was more than enough hearing it for the fire in his soul to burn, a bright anger at them all for harming the young miss in such a way.

Oh, they were right in fearing him. If he could reach the power of his Chain right here and now, he would kill them all for this terrible affront to the Lady. He would put an end to them, one by one, cold and sharp like the steel of his blade, would remind them why they feared him so.

And then, shards of glass in his veins. A shock to his core : Mad Hatter was back in his blood.

It was time to fight back.

...

When Break woke up, it was with Reim at his side. He'd survived once again (when would his luck dry out? Soon, very soon) and was allowed some rest before their last stand at Sablier. A rest during which Sharon visited. She sat by his side and slowly, in a softness unique to the women in her family, reached for him, her fingers ghosting over the side of his head. She remembered where he'd been hit, where a dark bruise had to be hidden under his snow white hair.

Xerxes smiled and took hold of her small fingers in his hand. He was fine, he would tell her through his gaze. A couple of bruises weren't enough to bring him down. He was fine and there was still enough of him left to travel to their penultimate standing ground, protect this world where they had met and loved and lost.

To protect her with the last of him.

"Oh shush you. I never said they should stab the creature, I said they could do as they please."

“Aww, are you worried about me~?”

While it was true Sharon could be … temperamental, the young miss was also busy with her studies for the day. Which meant Break was safe from her scolding!

Sadly, he wasn’t from Reim’s.

"How long has it been since you last slept~?"